Beyond the ridiculousness of the very concept, I've heard such an idea talked about for years. It's a pretty straightforward and obvious idea -- but it's one that few others were interested in implementing (or patenting) as it would likely piss off users. Apparently AT&T doesn't worry about such things. In the meantime, in March of 2004 (about a year and a half before AT&T filed for its patent), I wrote about how the company E-Loan was offering something quite similar. Rather than an upfront payment, E-Loan offered customers a choice of an onshore or offshore call center person, with the knowledge that an offshore support person would help them get a loan faster and an onshore one would take longer. That seems pretty similar to the idea of paying -- it's just that the cost is in time instead of money. Even if this isn't direct prior art, it certainly suggests that these types of ideas have been floating around for quite some time and hardly should be entirely "owned" by one company.

Personally...

I think I'd dump any company that pulled that on me. If I'm calling a company for support, then in some manner, I'm entitled to that support. Either I've paid for it when I purchased a product, or afterwords, as part of a continuing service contract.

The idea of off-shore support is bad enough, but to charge me extra to speak with (and thus keeping them employed) US Citizens, is an outrage. It seems like time to make certain such things are included in contracts.

And the idea that they'll offer some bozo with more money than sense the opportunity to jump ahead of me makes the whole thing even worse.

AT&T better not test me

What bothers me more than the patent nonsense is the idea of charging for the choice of an onshore or offshore call center or charging to "go the the head of the line".

I have to admit I have never heard of this before. In fact, if this gets implemented and I am ever given one of the choices above, I just might go to the closest AT&T office near me and bring my hammer like the lady did at the Comcast office

I'm outta there

A certain computer company, to remain unnamed here, once wanted me to enter my credit card # just to connect to a tech support person when my video card failed out of the box. (Think... the message showing on my MONITOR said that the computer could not finish booting because a MONITOR could not be detected). I returned the entire system, and have never bought that brand again... even when they had the best price on a machine with great specs.

I think AT&T would find the same results from disgruntled customers. After pulling that stunt, it would be hard to get us back, even after stopping the program.

ATT MUST BE STOP

ATT say's there are the largest network. That is not true so if someone was smart they put a lawsuit on ATT to stoop telling lies in their AD’S.. the government should not allowed ATT to become the same crap as it was in 1980 before the had to brake up the company.
There is no reason that we should pay extra service to receive support!

Subject is "Patents"

If one lets the free market work, well, freely, the ridiculousness of charging for US support over overseas techs will become obvious. Or it won't - those who have the money may choose to go that route, even if the rest of us think it's a ripoff. I agree with Eric the Grey - if I am calling, it's because of some pre-existing warranty or service due me.

I'm far more interested in what exactly they are attempting to patent. What is patentable about deciding to add fees to a call?

It's the big picture that is important here. Put together factoids like this one with the guy who patented the brain waves he "discovered", corporate patents on DNA strings and who knows else. I'm not sure what the patent holders intend to do with the patents, but I am not about to allow anyone to charge me fees for something my body produces naturally, with no participation on my part (other than breathing, etc.)

Bogging the conversation down in details pretty much guarantees that no action will be taken for a very long time and no one will ever question the basic premises and assumptions. Have you heard any discussion about preemptive attacks on other countries and what standards should be used in evaluating the intelligence those attacks may be based on?

and this too

Joe, unless you were in the room with dualboot at the time, you can hardly jump to the conclusion that he made a mistake. Given the user name, I doubt the writer was that inexperienced with computers. Besides, one should be able to hook one's computer up right out of the box. Obviously they are geared to the least knowledgeable - look at the ridiculous set up diagrams provided.

Re: and this too

I work in tech support and 9 times out of 10 when someone doesnt have video on a new computer its because they hooked up the monitor to the onboard VGA port instead of the one on the video card. If they are too stupid to even hook it up right they shouldnt even have a computer. A monkey could follwo the instructions on the setup guide

Prior Art

AMEX Business Services has had this option for some time. I work with the Gov't so our travel arrangements are considered sensitive information. AMEX charges us extra for the 'privilege' of working with a domestic AMEX travel agent.

att can do it and get away with it

I used Bellsouth before they merged and it was a freaking nightmare in order to just get to talk to a person. then usually once you got to talk to a person, the operator as short and extremely rude. ATT is now big enough that if you want to use certain services, you have to use them (cant use iphone on other services). They know they have you by the balls and will squeeze every cent they can out of you to offset the bottom line.

I have been with AT&T since before they sold their wireless division to Cingular. Now again in the wireless aspect since they have re-purchased it. Never have I been outsourced nor have I had a bad experience. Their services work.

Nobody screws customers quite as well as the telco

Nice to see they're working so hard to find new ways to nickle and dime their customers to death. I imagine implementation of such a 'feature' would not go over very well once word got out to the public.

What if...

everyone paid to jump ahead of the queue and they all ended up in the same order they were in before? If 10 people were in queue and each paid $10 to jump to the front, then ATT makes 100 quick bucks and everyone is still waiting for the others to get their business done.

That or there's a call center in rural USA full of bored, high school kids that can snicker everytime they get a call knowing some dolt paid money to interrupt his/her online comic reading.

The E-LOAN story was incorrect from the start; call center staff and loan consultants were always located in the United States, with the majority at corporate HQ in Pleasanton, CA.

What they did in March of 2004 was, as part of their home equity division, allow customers to choose whether or not they would permit their personal information and documents to be processed, post-phone or post-internet application, on the backend by an offshore contractor or in-house by E-LOAN's own staff. Offshore worked 24 hours and offered a faster turnaround, while Pleasanton remained a 9 - 5, weekday-only affair. Regardless of where the loan was processed, the loan consultant and customer contact person was always an in-house, onshore and direct employee of E-LOAN.

Fat lot of good it did them; they've stopped doing all loans, laid off 99 percent of staff and will wind down operations by the end of 1Q 09.